Tech Talk

Here is your weekly update on the up-and-coming trends in the tech world.

YT on that VR

This week, YouTube unveiled 360-degree virtual reality videos and a virtual movie theater available to anyone with aGoogle Cardboard headset. The goal is to “democratize virtual reality” and “bring VR to everybody, no matter who you are or what your favorite piece of content is,” YouTube says. “Virtual reality makes the experience of being there even more awesome and immersive.” At the moment, the company has featured around ten 360-degree VR videos, but YouTube is hoping that the library of content will grow rapidly.

CodeGirl

A new documentary debuted on November 1 encouraging girls to code. “CodeGirl” is about a high school girls app-building competition. The entire one-hour-and-48-minute film was up on YouTube for five days and is now released in theaters. The hope, of course, is to get as many people watching as possible.

Music Stories

Facebook recently launched a new features that allows users to better discover new music and share tracks with friends. This new post format integrated with Spotify and Apple Music, dubbed “Music Stories,” lets people listen to a 30-second preview of the shared song while on Facebook. “We hope by making this experience better, artists will share more, friends will share and engage more, and music will become a better part of the Facebook experience overall,” Michael Cerda, director of product at Facebook wrote in a blog post.

Speaking of Facebook… the social giant recently reported that about 1 out of every 7 human beings checks into Facebook each day. Cue mic drop.

Art For The Blind

3DPhotoWorks is a project that aims to bring the “world’s greatest art” to the blind. The company, founded by John Olsen, is converting famous paintings into digitally sculpted objects that blind people can touch and experience. These sculptures are amazingly detailed and are museum quality so they can be handled and enjoyed for years. Olson is trying to raise a $500,000 on kickstarter to bring a number of these paintings to museums around the world.

In other news, Bitcoin is making a comeback as our beloved virtual currency.